Elmhurst Public Library Deserves Your Support
Email your aldermen and the mayor, asking them to ensure that trustee appointees remain committed to a welcoming and accessible library.
Did you know? In Elmhurst the mayor appoints public library trustees, and aldermen can request a discussion and a floor vote.
Caption: Pride Month Display at Elmhurst Public Library
As reactionary forces target libraries through book challenges and defunding efforts, it’s essential that more community members become involved in their local libraries. Far-right groups focus on taking over public institutions to privatize and neuter them. Library supporters must focus on strengthening and expanding public institutions that we value.
Reading is a foundational skill, critical to future learning and to exercising our democratic freedoms. Libraries provide access to books that offer teachable moments for readers of all ages and expand our understanding of people with different backgrounds, ideas, and beliefs. Books are tools for understanding complex issues.
Limiting people’s access to books does not protect them from life’s complex and challenging issues. People of all ages deserve to see themselves reflected in a library’s collection. Librarians are professionals trained to not impose their own thoughts and opinions on which ideas are right, but to make knowledge and ideas available so that people have the freedom to choose what to read.
Removing and banning books from public libraries is a slippery slope to government censorship and the erosion of our country’s commitment to freedom of expression. A large majority of Americans across the political spectrum oppose book bans. Book bans and censorship harm communities.
Individuals should be trusted to make their own decisions about what they read and believe. Further, parents should not be making decisions for other parents’ children about what they read. We must unite against book bans.
Please email your aldermen and the mayor, asking them to ensure that library trustee appointees are committed to a welcoming and accessible library.